1. Field of the Invention
Our invention relates generally to tracking user proximity in order to support location-based services. More particularly, our invention relates to methods and apparatus for dynamically determining user proximity identification information from diverse sources and making this information available on a standardized basis to location sensitive services.
2. Description of the Background
There is a continued emergence of networked based appliance technologies/devices that have been integrated into wide area networks. In general, these are single or limited function consumer devices with an embedded processor and a network connection, the combination of which allow these devices to be controlled via network based applications. There is also a continued emergence of personal digital assistants (PDAs) and wireless technologies that allow these devices to be constantly networked. From a different perspective, there is also an existence of numerous technologies that can track and/or detect the physical location of a user or entity; such technologies include cellular systems, credit card scanners, badging systems, etc. Significant benefits could be achieved by combining network appliances, PDA's, and location detection capabilities to create location-sensitive services, which services could provide automated interaction and inter-working with networked appliances and PDA's based on the detection/knowledge of a user or entity's proximity. Example applications could include automatically opening doors and turning on lights as a user approaches a room, displaying room-reservation information on a PDA as a customer enters a hotel, or even displaying user specific messages on public signs as a user walks by. In general, such services are a combination of detecting a user or entity location and allowing some application to retrieve this location and then interact with networked devices.
However, what is missing in order to provide such location-sensitive services are methods and systems for providing location sensitive information. Cellular telephony and credit card systems, as examples, are widely deployed and can track user proximity on a large-scale basis. However, relative to networked appliance-based applications, the proximity information these systems possess is only a side effect of the main service and is thereby not ubiquitously available to external applications. Companies, such as ActiveRF Ltd, provide systems that detect/track a user or entity's proximity and make this information available for use by other applications. However, these systems are directed at small-scale applications thereby making it difficult to track users on a large-scale ubiquitous nature.